


It was cold, but it got warm

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 04:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/832550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Charlie the bager/ice cream/socks</p>
            </blockquote>





	It was cold, but it got warm

**1.     Charlie the Badger**

“Oh my god, I can’t,” Karen says. “There is no way that this is happening.”

“Come on,” Matt says, a little sadly. “He’ll be happy with you. And plus, you’ll have something to remember me by.”

“I’ll have tons of things to remember you by,” Karen says, and now people in the departures area of Heathrow are starting to stare. “Namely, memories. I can’t have Charlie. He’s your best friend.”

Matt rolls his eyes at that one. “Charlie is not my best friend.”

“That’s right. I am.” She looks him dead in the face, and now she feels doubly sad, because she’s leaving, and because he’s getting stupidly sentimental. Damn you, Matt Smith. “When I get to Los Angeles, I will find an American badger counterpart for Charlie, and name her Caroline.”

Matt smiles, and oh fuck now he’s got tears in his eyes. “I am going to miss you so much, Kazza.” He pulls her in to a hug so tight that she swears that her ribs are going to break.

“I’m going to miss you too,” Karen says, and it suddenly hits her that she’s not going to be able to hug Matt again for a really, really long time, and that thought hurts her.

They pull apart from each other for a moment, and her hands are still around his neck and his are around her waist, and for a second she thinks that he’s about to kiss her, because he’s got this super significant look in his eyes, but he just pecks her lightly on the forehead and then lets go of her.

“Go be a movie star, okay?” He says, and she nods at him, and turns around with her stuff to go catch her plane.

By the time she Skypes with Matt for the first time, she has found Caroline the badger, and though it’s ridiculous, Charlie and Caroline do most of the ‘talking’ over Skype.

She loves the ridiculous.

* * *

 

**2.     Ice Cream**

They don’t have a ton of time in London together, because they’re doing the thing where they switch continents.

“We’re oil and water, Kazza,” Matt says. “We can never be together.”

“Shucks.”

“I know!” Matt says, “I don’t know where else to find leggy gingers who own badgers and will cuddle with me if I ask them nicely.”

“Perhaps I’m just unique, Matthew.”

They’ve visited about four different ice cream shops because Karen has suddenly got the most massive craving for Irn-Bru ice cream, because even though she’s not the biggest fan of Irn-Bru, it kind of tastes like home and she’s been missing home.

They get to the fourth ice cream shop they’ve perused that afternoon, and there is no Irn-Bru ice cream to be found.

“Let’s just stop here,” Karen says.

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” she says. “I’ve literally dragged you to a million places. Let’s get our ice cream and enjoy it.”

It’s May in London, and not nearly warm enough to enjoy ice cream, but this does not stop them. Karen ends up with mango sorbet, and Matt goes for vanilla and strawberry. (“You, good sir, are exceptionally indulgent,” Karen says as he tries not to drop his gravitationally impossible ice cream cone.

“I’m just fun,” he replies, and there’s vanilla ice cream dripping down his hand.)

They walk along until Matt has one too many close calls with his ice cream, and then they sit on a bench and watch London bustle by in front of them.  

“Thanks for wandering around with me,” Karen says to Matt as she finishes her ice cream. She fiddles with the little paper thing that goes on the bottom of the cone as Matt finishes his.

He shrugs. “Not a big deal for someone I’m a little in love with.”

He keeps his eyes focussed straight ahead, but she looks at him with her mouth hanging open in surprise because _you don’t just drop that in casual conversation Matt what the fuck are you doing._

She tries to replicate his calmness, and says, “Well, I think I’m a little in love with you too, so that’s good.”

She’s not lying.

She kisses him that night after they’re done their dinner, and the lack of Irn-Bru ice cream matters less because he tastes like home to her.

* * *

 

**3.    Socks.**

Karen buys Matt a pair of socks every single Christmas with whatever else she’s getting him for Christmas, and though he thinks it’s stupid at first, he actually wears the rainbow-striped ones that she gets him until he wears out the heels and she has to throw them out for him, and it’s the cutest thing ever.

(He doesn’t wear them to her wedding, because she sees to it that he wears a kilt for the wedding, and rainbow socks don’t go with kilts.)

The tradition of socks for Christmas is soon commandeered from Karen, though. Eleanor, their daughter, claims it as her own at age six.

(Karen does help her though, because she gives Matt women’s socks one year that don’t fit his feet. He still wears them because he’s an idiot, and also adorable.) 


End file.
